Miniaturization of semiconductor devices such as memory devices, logic devices, and microprocessors is an ever present goal of processing engineers and design engineers. Increasing the density of devices decreases costs, for example by increasing device yields and by decreasing material costs.
Semiconductor devices such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) devices, and other devices comprising random access memory (RAM), typically comprise a word line which forms part of a gate for a transistor, a storage capacitor (typically a container capacitor) which stores an electrical charge, and a digit line (bit line) which is used to store, erase, and read a charge on the storage capacitor.
A container capacitor is typically formed by etching a patterned opening to expose a doped region in a semiconductor wafer (or to expose a conductive pad which contacts the doped region) then forming a polysilicon layer within the opening to provide a polysilicon capacitor plug which contacts the doped region (or the conductive pad). A capacitor bottom plate is formed to contact the polysilicon plug, and a capacitor cell dielectric and a capacitor top plate are formed in proximity to the bottom plate.
The digit line has been conventionally formed at a level above that of the completed storage capacitor. To form a conventional digit line, a patterned opening is etched through a dielectric layer to expose a doped region of a semiconductor wafer substrate assembly, a plug is formed in the opening, then the digit line is formed to contact the plug. However, with decreasing device sizes the width of the container capacitor decreases and thus the height of the capacitor must be increased to maintain an adequate capacitance. A digit line formed at a level above the storage capacitor requires the plug opening to have a severe height:width ratio (i.e. a severe “aspect ratio”), possibly 10:1 or more, which is difficult to achieve. Further, accomplishing a complete fill of the opening with metal to form the digit line plug is also difficult and may leave a plug with one or more voids and a high electrical resistance. Instead of etching completely through a thick dielectric layer to expose a doped region in the semiconductor wafer, the aspect ratio required for the digit line plug may be reduced somewhat by forming a contact pad prior to dielectric formation which contacts the doped region of the wafer, then etching the dielectric to expose the contact pad during the etch of the plug opening. The digit line plug opening, therefore, must be etched deep enough to expose the contact pad rather than etching down to the semiconductor wafer. However, this advantage provided by the plug is negated as the feature size is further decreased because of the requirement for an even taller container capacitor.
To overcome problems with the conventional digit line structure, including the high aspect ratio opening which must be completed to form the digit line plug, buried digit line processes have been developed. A buried digit line is formed at a level below the level of the storage capacitor, and thus no high aspect opening is required for the digit line plug to the doped wafer region. Buried digit line structures are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,250,457 by Dennison, 6,790,738 by Clampitt, and 6,838,375 to Hu, each of which is assigned to Micron Technology, Inc. and incorporated herein as if set forth in their entirety.
To prevent contact between the buried digit line and other conductive features, the conductive digit line layer is formed, patterned, and etched, then a conformal blanket dielectric spacer layer, typically silicon nitride, is formed and etched using an anisotropic spacer etch, thereby resulting in dielectric spacers along sidewalls of the buried digit line. While the spacer is required to prevent contact with adjacent conductive features, it adds to the lateral space required on the semiconductor wafer. As two spacers are typically required for each digit line, and there are several thousand digit lines in a typical DRAM device, the spacers may require considerable space on the semiconductor device.
In the processes described above, a first patterned mask is needed to etch the polysilicon plug of the container capacitor and a second patterned mask is needed to etch the digit lines. Both of these masks are critical and have scant processing latitude. Patterning of these layers is subject to mask misalignment, which may result in undesirable contact between conductive features and an unreliable or nonfunctional device. Thus, reducing the number of critical masking patterns is a goal of semiconductor processing engineers.
A method for forming a semiconductor device which has a reduced number of required patterned masks and eliminates the need for discrete spacers around the digit line would be desirable, as would the resulting semiconductor device and systems formed using the device.